How To Train Your Little Brother
by Jamie15
Summary: (ASL; a sibling story) During a fight, an accident causes a rift between the three brothers.
1. Chapter 1: The Accident

**Chapter 1**

_The Accident  
_

* * *

"Duck, Luffy!"

In record time Luffy was lying on the ground, his face pressed into the grass, breathing in its fresh, earthy scent. He had no idea as to why he was ducking, but as the past months had taught him, it was usually best to listen to Ace when his elder brother was using that particular tone of voice. Else there could be dire consequences – and not just because of the danger he would be ignoring as a result.

His gut-feeling was proved right less than half a second later, when he could feel the air above his head stir with sudden movement. Judging by the force of the resulting gust of wind, something big and unbelievably heavy had just passed right over him.

"Don't move!"

The sound of footsteps hurrying across the ground, accompanied by a few muttered curses, let Luffy know that his brothers were not very far away. It was probably only a matter of seconds until one of them was going to reach their younger sibling to help Luffy out of whatever tight spot he had found himself in this time. Speaking of which …

He risked a glance from underneath his straw hat, which he was clutching like a helmet, and caught a glimpse of rather shaggy brown fur, two dark, glittering eyes and a pair of nostrils that was widened to such an extreme, it seemed to Luffy that the entire village of Fuusha could fit in there. His breathing momentarily stopped, as he realised what exactly it was that was literally staring him in the face.

'_A bear!_' he thought, the beginnings of terror forming in the pit of his stomach, as the snout of the animal slowly descended towards his prone body and experimentally started to sniff at him. Closing his eyes, Luffy knew that his only hope of not ending up as this bear's afternoon snack hinged on the fact that his last bath had been more than a week ago … he thought. There was simply no way that he could smell appetising.

Just as he could feel the bear's hot breath begin to waft across his face, there was the distinct sound of a jump, followed by two battle cries that resonated around the clearing, as his brothers descended on the wild animal with all the force that two ten year olds could muster.

SMACK. He almost winced in sympathy as the wooden staffs of Ace and Sabo noisily connected with the bear's body. That had to hurt. But considering that he had just narrowly escaped serving as an early evening meal for the animal, the level of sympathy he was able to feel was a bit on the low side.

"SABO! Go round!"

"Distract it for a sec, yeah?!"

"I'm on it! Get back Luffy!"

As his brothers began to fight in earnest with the bear, one of them attacking from the left, the other from the right, Luffy quickly jumped to his feet. There was just no way that he would allow the two of them to take over the entire fight, not when he had been spending so much time training and teaching himself a couple of cool new moves lately.

Patiently (or as patiently as Luffy would ever be) he waited for an opening to try out the newly refined version of his gum gum pistol, already drawing back his fist in preparation. He got his chance barely a moment later, as Ace and Sabo simultaneously jumped back from their most recent attack.

"GUM GUM …," he yelled, drawing in a deep breath, "PISTOL!"

There was an audible and satisfactory smack as his rapidly expanding rubber arm hit against flesh and a victorious grin started to spread across Luffy's face. The happy expression vanished within the span of a second, however, as he realised just what, or rather whom, he had actually managed to hit.

"Ugh …"

The force of the blow sent Sabo flying across the clearing at breakneck speed, right into a tree. He was knocked out cold the moment his head collided with the trunk.

"SABO!"

Horrified, Ace and Luffy could only stare at the crumpled form of their brother for what seemed like an eternity, before both of them started running towards him at the same time. There was, however, one slight problem with that plan: they had completely forgotten about the animal they were still supposed to be fighting.

Taking advantage of his opponents' distraction, the bear swiped its sharp claws through the air, aiming its paw at the head of the smaller of the two colourful blobs that were mindlessly trying to hurry past it.

Ace's heart might as well have stopped, as out of the corner of his eyes he saw the bear's movements and he realised for whom the attack was headed. "Damn it!"

He swerved from his path and lunged at Luffy, grabbing the little idiot roughly by the scruff of his neck and throwing them both to the ground in a flurry of movement.

The force of the impact made him groan a little in pain, but he didn't dare wait to catch his breath. Ignoring Luffy's indignant complaining (because of course his idiot brother had no idea that he had just nearly been mauled to death) he was up again in a flash, putting himself between the bear and the younger boy. As it would seem, the bear didn't plan on being idle either, and by the time Ace had regained his footing and picked up his staff from where he had dropped it on the ground it was already coming in for a second attack.

He tried to block what would have certainly been a cleaving swipe with his weapon, but the force of it was so strong that he got thrown to the side in one big swoop, uncontrollably tumbling through the grass and getting a few scrapes and burns for his trouble. Unfortunately though, and what was far worse, he also let go of his staff.

Luffy, on the other hand, was now cowering in front of the huge animal, all alone, but nevertheless showing no inclination of doing the sensible thing and running away. In what seemed like a sudden fit of anger the youngest of the devil trio was suddenly on his feet as well, his fists raised in what would have been a threatening gesture - coming from anyone other than him.

"Leave Ace alone, you old mothy carpet!" he called, his eyes flashing. And picking up the staff that Ace had dropped, Luffy threw himself at the animal, beginning to hit at whichever places he could reach.

He didn't do much damage, seeing as he was both too enraged and frankly too weak to make a focussed attack. What counted in his favour, though, was the fact that he was fast and quite versatile, dancing around the bear's swipes and fell swoops like an annoying fly. In this way his attacks seemed enough to distract the enraged animal from other attackers at that moment, giving Ace the perfect opening. Although that didn't mean that he had to like his brother's involvement in the fight. "Luffy!" he yelled, his voice shaking with anger, "Get. Away. NOW!"

Immediately, his little brother obeyed, moving away at just the right moment for Ace to get in his final attack which knocked the bear clear out with a violent clobber around the head.

Chests heaving, breathing hard, the two brothers stood there for a moment in silence, before they tore across the clearing towards where Sabo was still lying on the ground. To their immense relief, the other boy was starting to stir and groan already, even before they reached him.

"SABO!"

"Sabo! Are you okay?! Hey, talk to me!"

They dropped down to the ground next to him, just as Sabo opened his eyes and gave them a confused look. "What … happened?" he asked, and winced a bit at the headache he could feel developing, emanating from the spot that had first made contact with the tree.

Rather than giving him a straight answer, Ace shot Luffy a sharp and angry look. The relief he felt at seeing that Sabo was moderately alright, quickly evaporated to be replaced by anger at his little brother's stupid attempts at using his devil's fruit power. Luffy's useless experiments could very easily have cost them their lives today.

"Luffy is what happened!" he gnashed out between gritted teeth, drawing the black-haired boy's attention away from Sabo and towards him. "He tried to use his stupid, gum-gum-good-for-nothing devil's fruit ability again!"

"HEY!" Luffy piped up indignantly, "It's not good for nothing! Don't mock it! You just wait, one day, I'll-"

"Get us all _killed_ with it!" Ace shouted, close to seething with anger. "This has to stop Luffy! Don't you realise what you just nearly did?! Sabo almost _died_ today because of your dumb play-acting!"

Ace could see Luffy's eyes widen in shock and Sabo who had managed to sit up by now gave an audible gasp. Silence reigned in the clearing for what felt like an eternity, until Sabo managed to speak up, "Ne, ne, Ace, calm down a bit! You're exaggerating!" he said with a tentative smile, making calming gestures.

"That's not true," Luffy said in barely a hush of a voice, his hat drawn so far into his face that his eyes were hidden behind the brim. "Take that back."

"No," Ace growled, deliberately ignoring all the warning bells that were going off in his head at the sight of his little brother. He _needed_ to make Luffy understand. "How is it not true? Was it somebody else who knocked Sabo into that tree with one of their antics? When will you get it into your thick skull? You need to stop doing that sort of crap! It's dangerous if you don't know what you're doing!"

Luffy was unnaturally quiet then, and even if Sabo himself hadn't felt that Ace had gone too far now he would have jumped to Luffy's aid at the boy's evident distress. "Ace, that's enough now!" he called, shooting the other boy a glare, "You're being way too harsh! It was just an accident! I'm sure-"

However, he found himself ignored by both Luffy and Ace. "But I want to get stronger! I _need_ to practise my attacks, Ace!" Luffy shouted, finally starting to fight back.

"Do it somewhere else then!" Ace countered, still beyond angry and caring. "Somewhere where you don't constantly get in everyone's way!"

That hit home. For a few moments no-one of the three brothers said anything. Then, trying to hide the tears that were already gathering in his eyes with his hat, Luffy suddenly turned around and started running away.

"H-hey!" Sabo shouted after him, one hand extended towards Luffy's retreating form, as if to grab him from behind, "Where are you going?!"

"Home!" his little brother shouted, his voice so far from its usual, bouncy tone that Sabo almost didn't recognise it. A second later, Luffy had disappeared into the forest.

"Please, Luffy, come back! We can talk about this!" Sabo yelled, frustrated. When he got no reaction, he turned towards the other black-haired boy who had his arms crossed in front of his chest. As Sabo threw him an angry look, Ace only sighed and closed his eyes, before turning in the opposite direction from the one his little brother was headed in.

"Leave him be, Sabo," he said, "Maybe he needs to think about it for a bit."

"Think about what?!" Sabo yelled, "There's nothing to think about! So he made a mistake! Big deal! We all do! Including you! Or do I need to give you a special reminder of the great staff-in-bear's-nose incident of only a few days ago?!"

"That was different!" Ace argued back and now he was shouting at Sabo too. "I can take care of myself! If I get into a scrape and something goes wrong I can get out of it again! Luffy can't! He's as good as helpless as it is, and if he starts creating even more chaos during a fight than he already does by just being there, then we'll really be in trouble! It's hard enough to keep an eye on the little idiot as it is, I couldn't bear-" He almost bit himself on the tongue with how fast he closed his mouth to stop the traitorous words from escaping.

Sabo, however, was far too intelligent and knew Ace far too well, not to be able to guess at his meaning without hearing the end of the sentence. He gave a sigh. "Ace…" he started to say, but then stopped, as he didn't quite know how to finish the sentence without upsetting the other boy even further. Sabo was painfully aware of how much Ace disliked talking about _feelings_, which was why he had no clue about how to approach the subject. "Ace, I know that you're worried about Luffy, but …"

"Worried? Who's worried?" Ace cut in between, "I just don't want him interfering in our fights when he doesn't know jack."

He turned around again and started walking away, faking indifference when Sabo knew that he was deeply embarrassed by the unexpected turn the conversation had taken and just wanted to get away.

"I'm going to train for a bit. See you later Sabo!"

At first Sabo wanted to call him back, but decided against it when he realised that actually he was not too eager to talk about _feelings_ and all that entailed himself. Plus, Ace had already vanished behind a line of trees anyway.

He sighed and put a hand worriedly to the brim of his top hat. "Those two …"

Watching the two fight with each other one would think that they were each other's worst enemies – not sworn brothers. Sometimes, he wondered whether they would ever get it together. But then he thought that maybe it was precisely _because_ they loved each other so much that they were at each other's throats all the time – even if Ace liked to act all blasé about it. In any case, neither of the two had tried to smother the other with a pillow in his sleep so far – that had to count for something.

Seeing as both of them had left him alone in the clearing with what was supposed to be their evening meal, Sabo turned towards the dead bear, contemplating how he would get the large animal from here to their tree house all on his own. As he stood there he noticed another problem entirely, however …

"Huh?!"

His mouth fell open as he stared at the empty space the bear should have been occupying. "BUT … WHERE THE HECK DID IT GO?"

* * *

**A/N**: Hello there! I hope you liked the first chapter :). The next one should be up soon, I think! *crosses fingers*


	2. Chapter 2: Lost

**Chapter 2**

_Lost …_

* * *

There was a squirrel sitting in his path – a tiny, red, speck of a squirrel. It had tilted its head in curiosity and was watching him with a careful eye – and by the looks of it, it was not going to budge anytime soon.

Ace glared at it. It stared right back. Ace glared some more, gritting his teeth. The squirrel continued to gaze at him, confused, and then after a moment began rubbing at its nose, seemingly indifferent to the boy's ire.

"Move it!" Ace finally yelled and hit the ground with his staff for good measure. The squirrel looked at him in an almost insulted manner, before it hurried up a tree at the edge of the path, chattering at him in anger. Unfortunately for it, Ace really could not care less right then.

With a final glare directed at the rodent, he continued on his way through the forest, almost sighing in relief when he stepped out of the last line of trees at the edge of the cliff barely five minutes later. Taking a deep breath of the fresh sea breeze, he felt the tension drain from him almost immediately. This was much better.

Although Ace did not want to admit it – to Sabo in particular – he actually did feel slightly guilty for making Luffy cry like that. He had not intended for that to happen, and in retrospect he thought that maybe he should have phrased his concern slightly differently. On the other hand though, perhaps he could hope that their fight would have more of a lasting impression on Luffy than mere words might have had, for there was no doubt that the gist of what he had said was a lesson that Luffy needed to learn – desperately. Luffy's insistence on playing around with his devil's fruit power during fights was starting to endanger not only himself but all three of them and Ace just could not let that happen. It was all fun and games while they were just amongst themselves and having a good time – but these experiments with the gum gum fruit's ability had no place in a real fight.

Besides, even though Sabo had jumped to Luffy's aid, Ace knew that the other boy secretly agreed with him. He was just too soft on Luffy sometimes and tolerated his antics far too much – which necessarily led to Luffy becoming even more boisterous and untameable. Ace didn't necessarily like it, but if he had to play the role of the mean older brother, then so it would be. In the end, it would be better for all of them.

Facing the sea, Ace stood in silence up on the cliff side for a long time, before finally settling down cross-legged with a long sigh. After a while, he heard the sound of a faint rustling behind him and he turned around. What he saw made his right eyebrow start twitching in irritation again.

"You … you really have no sense of self-preservation, do you?"

The squirrel ignored him and continued rifling through the grass, looking for food.

* * *

"HNNNNG!" Sabo groaned, dragging the crocodile carcass into the space in front of their tree house with an almighty tug. "HNNNNG …! Oh … damn it … this is … ridiculous! A little help … would've … been nice …, Ace …, Luffy!"

Shortly after the mysterious disappearance of the bear, Sabo had gone in search of an alternative for their evening meal, seeing as it was unlikely that either Ace or Luffy would think of catching anything – in particular because neither of them even had a clue that the bear had still been alive and fled the scene while they were having their fight. After a quick contemplation, Sabo had decided to go for crocodile meat – mainly, as he had to admit, because lately it had become Luffy's favourite kind and he hoped that it might help cheer his little brother up somewhat.

It was only when he had succeeded in catching the animal half an hour later that he realised the one terrible mistake that he had made in deciding on their evening meal; for while carrying a large crocodile carcass with his two brothers posed no problem at all, having to shoulder that burden all by himself was quite a different matter. Although the first couple of metres had been comparatively easy, the thing seemed to get heavier and heavier with every step, so that by the time he got to the tree house it did not so much feel like he was dragging a 2,000 pound crocodile, but rather a 6,000 stone sea king.

He gave one more desperate tug and then gave up. It was useless. He just could not move it even one step further – at least not without help.

"Luffy!" he called up to the tree house. He was easily within hearing distance now, so he figured that his brother might as well stop his moping and come down to help him.

"Luffy! I've caught a crocodile for us to have at dinner time! Come on and help me carry it!"

When no reply was forthcoming Sabo sighed. Curse the two of them and their stupid fights, really. He hated to see Luffy this upset. It seemed so out of place for his continually cheerful, boisterous younger brother – almost like someone had flicked a switch and turned Luffy's personality completely on its head. Perhaps … perhaps he could tempt him to come out of his shell with a bit of bribery …?

"Mmmmm – oh, Luffy! You have to come and take a look at this hind leg here! Mmm, it looks so delicious! Actually, you know what?" he shouted, and then lowered his voice slightly, going for a conspiratorial tone, "Let's have some now before Ace comes back, alright? What do you think?"

But still, despite his efforts the sound of hastily scurrying feet and delighted laughter remained disappointingly absent as Sabo's voice faded into silence. He regarded the crocodile for a bit, pondering what to do, before deciding to leave it there for the time being. It was risky, as the forest was full of hungry animals, but he really did not have the energy anymore to move it to any place that was safer.

Sabo climbed the corded ladder that led to their tree house and carefully entered their main – and more or less only – room. Almost immediately he spotted the little human-shaped bundle, which was huddled in the corner, looking a complete picture of misery.

"Luffy …" he said, approaching it carefully. "Luffy, come on, don't be upset. You know Ace didn't mean it like that. Plus anyway, I think you're amazing, you know that? You'll definitely become a terrific fighter one day – that counts for something, doesn't it?"

Disappointingly, the bundle neither moved nor made a sound, remaining perfectly still even as Sabo approached. Closer and closer he got, becoming increasingly worried – until he finally discovered the reason for the unnatural stillness; for the human-shaped bundle in the end turned out to be nothing more than a pile of clothes, thrown haphazardly into the corner by one of the brothers.

'_Oops._'

Feeling stupid now, and very embarrassed, Sabo turned on the spot, carefully inspecting every corner of the room in search of his brother.

"Luffy!" he called again, "Luffy where are you?"

But still there was no answer and their home remained eerily silent.

"Luffy …?"

* * *

It was getting close to mid-afternoon when Ace finally decided that it was probably time to head back and face the music from both of his siblings. In all likelihood, Luffy was still sulking about their fight this morning and he was certain that Sabo had not forgiven him yet for upsetting their younger brother. He would probably expect Ace to make some sort of apology to their younger sibling … which, however, was just not going to happen. But perhaps … perhaps he would let Luffy have the bigger portion of the meat tonight – that was guaranteed to get rid of the sulking expression and the endless complaints, and might just save Ace from getting a major headache.

But speaking of meat …

_Uh-oh _...

He groaned as he remembered that he had left Sabo all on his own with the dead bear. Which, with Luffy gone, meant that the other boy had had to drag the dead animal home all by himself. Ace cringed. He hoped that Sabo was not too angry about that …

Just as Ace turned to walk towards the forest path, he suddenly heard the sound of someone fighting their way through the undergrowth. A mere moment later a figure broke through the line of trees at the edge of the forest, panting like mad. It was Sabo.

"Ace!" he called the second he recognised him, trying to support his upper body by bracing his hands on his knees, "Fuh-finally, there you are! I can't find Luffy anywhere!"

* * *

_Crack. Snap. Crack. Whoosh._

Startled a couple of deer raised their heads at the deafening noise that suddenly broke through the silence of the forest. Something was approaching them – and it was doing so at a frighteningly fast and destructive pace.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! Aaaace! I'm going to show you, just you wait!"

In fright they retreated a couple of steps, going to hide behind some of the taller trees a few metres at their backs. They had only just disappeared into the deeper shadows of the forest, when they saw a blur of yellow and red colours burst through the underbrush and race past them, shouting in anger at the top of its voice.

"It was just an accident! I-I didn't-"

Suddenly, the blur tripped over a tree root, sending it flying through the air – and then something absolutely peculiar happened. For instead of the thing just tumbling to the ground, its left leg lengthened itself to such an extreme, it seemed to have grown to thrice the entire body length of the creature by the time it stopped. Aghast, the deer took back another few steps, frightened of what it would do next.

However, the little colourful blob did nothing except lie there for quite a long time, unmoving. It was not dead, however. They could just about make out the slow rise and fall of its chest as it breathed somewhat irregularly. What was more, it seemed to be shaking slightly. Warily, they stayed back and waited.

After a while, the creature righted itself again and seemed to shoot a baleful look at its leg, which promptly contracted itself to its original size. It then flailed around for a bit, shouting again ("Damn it, why won't it WORK?"), before getting up and continuing on its way. Ten seconds later it was gone.

Twitching their ears in in apprehension, the deer chose to wait for a little while longer, before stepping out of their hiding place – and their customary hesitance turned out to be their salvation. For just as they were about to leave, a cold shower ran down their backs, causing their legs to tense in case they had to make a quick escape. Barely a moment later, another creature stepped into their field of vision. This one was taller than the other figure – much taller – and there seemed to be a malicious and frighteningly dangerous intent emanating from it. It took no notice of the deer, thankfully, choosing instead to walk past them in apparent pursuit of the other creature.

_Predator_.

Quick as a lightning bolt they turned around, fleeing the scene in a mad rush in order to put as much distance between themselves and the tall, oddly glinting creature as possible.

Meanwhile the dark figure continued on, paying them no heed as he smiled coldly and drew his sabre. It seemed the time to settle an old score had finally come.

* * *

**A/N**: Hello everyone! First of all, thank you SO MUCH for the amazing feedback I got for the first chapter - the reviews, the favorites, the follows - I am baffled, honestly! Baffled, and very very grateful :)! You were all so lovely - thanks a lot! Second, I wanted to say sorry that this took slightly longer than I expected it too - I just was not quite content with it. (I'm still not, to be honest xD! But I suppose I have to get past this point in the story eventually, so I can get to the more exciting stuff :P!) I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter all the same - I've got about half of the next one typed up already (and I like it much better!), so I hope it won't be too long! But I can't promise you anything, unfortunately, because I'm in China right now, trying to improve my Chinese :). I'll do my best though!

Till next time!


	3. Chapter 3: And Found?

**Chapter 3**

_And Found?_

* * *

"I really don't get how you can be so callous about this, Ace," Sabo said, shaking his head in distaste, "What's wrong with you?! Luffy is missing and you're acting like it's nothing out of the ordinary!"

Ace shrugged and turned the other way with a stubborn look on his face, avoiding Sabo's gaze. "I'm not being callous, I just don't think he's missing," he said, sounding rather put out. "He's probably off sulking somewhere. He'll turn up eventually, don't worry."

"You … you …" For a moment Sabo was actually speechless. Then he exploded. "You're an absolute berk, you know that?!"

Ace whipped around, about to give an angry retort, but Sabo carried on before he could even open his mouth. "Let me spell it out for you – our little brother is _missing_. We can't _find him_. After the both of you had a fight he said he was going home and when I looked for him there he was nowhere to be seen – which means that either something must have happened or that he has run away to God knows where. And just to get this straight: both of these possibilities are _not_ good!"

Ace glared at him, his teeth clenched in anger. "Right, just to get _this_ straight then," he bit out, the sarcasm heavy in his voice. "He. Is. _Sulking_ – _not_ missing! As you said, we had a fight – one that didn't go too well for him – and then he ran. He's probably off hiding somewhere just now, you know what a crybaby he is. Give him some time, he'll be back before it gets dark."

"And what happens if he's not?!" Sabo countered, fists shaking. "If he's in danger he needs us to find him _right now _– we might come too late if we put off looking for him! I don't want him to get hurt!"

Ace gave an angry twitch. "And I do, is that what you're saying?!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Sabo said, flabbergasted. "What's got into you?! Of course not! That's why I'm asking you to help me!"

"Tch," Ace scoffed, turning his head away with a deep frown on his face.

It seemed that Sabo would have to haul out the big guns in order to get past Ace's hurt pride.

"Besides …" he began, the terror in his voice only half feigned, "Can you imagine what the old geezer would do to us if he found out that Luffy had gone missing? He'd kill us!"

Although initially Ace gave a slight twitch of fear – an instinctual reaction which happened whenever his adopted grandfather was mentioned – Sabo's argument did not turn out to have quite the effect he had hoped for. "Tch …," Ace scoffed again. "Gramps would be just fine with it – he'd probably see it as some form of training. Luffy has been through far worse thanks to that guy's influence."

That was … probably true. Sabo sweatdropped. To cap it all, the crazy old man would probably give them an award for contributing to Luffy's training …

"Alright … fine …," he sighed, pinching his nose, "I'm asking you then, please, to help me – I'm really worried, I want to find him and I think that two heads would be better than one in this." Sabo looked at Ace imploringly. "So please, will you help me?"

There was silence for a couple of seconds, which was only broken by the birdsong coming from the canopy of trees above them. Then Ace sighed.

"Fine … let's see where the idiot has got off to – although I can promise you Sabo, he's absolutely fine."

Sabo smiled in relief. _Finally _… "Great!" he said. "I think we'd best start at Dadan's then! Perhaps he was thinking of hers when he said he was going home."

Ace grimaced. He seriously doubted that was true …. But he supposed it was as good a place as any to start their search.

"Alright then …," he said, "But you explain it to Dadan if he isn't there and she starts asking questions. She'll probably start breathing fire when she finds out that Luffy's disappeared."

Sabo gulped.

* * *

The outburst was, as it turned out, just as Ace had predicted.

"WHAT DO YOU _MEAN_ 'YOU CAN'T FIND LUFFY'?!"

The sheer volume of the shout had Sabo stuffing his index fingers into his ears in protection, while both he and Ace leant back slightly from the towering figure of Dadan. Their foster mother was doing a very impressive impression of an erupting volcano, causing the two boys to shrink back a couple of feet to avoid the escaping lava, i.e. spit and cigarette ash that was currently spewing from her mouth.

Predictably though, Ace refused to be cowed and after a moment of gathering his wits about him he began to shout back. '_So much for letting me handle this_,' Sabo thought, with no small amount of relief at seeing Dadan narrow her attention on the other boy.

"Exactly what we said, alright?! He wasn't at the tree house when we looked for him, so we thought that he might have gone back to yours."

"Well, he isn't here though, is he?" Dadan said.

"I can see that!"

"Well, where is he then?" Dadan demanded, her nostrils flared in a way which made both of the boys think of an angry hippo wearing a wig. "What did you do with him?! Did one of your blasted wild animals finally eat him while you weren't looking and now you're trying to shift the blame onto me?!"

A very vivid image of Garp asking her about the whereabouts of his grandson appeared in Dadan's mind and she had to swallow. Given the often perfect timing of Garp's sporadic visits … Nervously, she glanced out the window, but thankfully the clearing remained empty of the swaggering walk of the marine's hero.

"What?! NO!" There were few things in this world which would make Sabo willingly shift the focus of Dadan's wrath from Ace to himself. However, the suggestion that he was not taking good care of his little brother certainly ranged at the very top of that list. "We would never let that happen to Luffy! That's just stupid!"

Dadan subsided a little at the vehemence in Sabo's voice, but still folded her arms in front of her chest forbiddingly, "So where is he then?!"

"We're … not sure," Sabo eventually murmured, his eyes downcast. "He said he was going home, so when we didn't find him at the tree house we thought that maybe he'd gone to you."

Sabo looked over at Ace and watched as the other boy wrapped himself in contemplative silence. It was not hard for him to guess at what Ace was thinking about at that moment.

"_H-hey!" Sabo shouted after him, one hand extended towards Luffy's retreating form, as if to grab him from behind, "Where are you going?!"_

"_Home!"_

But what did that _mean_ then? Where had Luffy gone off to? Surely he couldn't mean the Grey Terminal? No-one in their right mind could ever refer to that dump as home.

All of a sudden, a rough hand clapped onto his shoulder and Sabo looked up, startled, into the suspiciously smiling face of Dadan. A glance to his right let him know that Ace was in a similarly precarious position and the sinking feeling that had started to spread in his stomach solidified instantly. '_Uh-oh_.'

"Ace … Sabo …" Dadan said, her voice sugary sweet, "You better get Luffy back, alright? Otherwise …"

Sabo didn't have the nerve to even swallow, even though his throat felt uncomfortably dry right then.

"THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!"

WHACK. KICK. "**AAARGH!**"

* * *

"So … not at Dadan's either then, huh?" Sabo winced, as he rubbed at his behind with a pained expression on his face. "Damn, she didn't have to kick _this_ hard …."

"Tch," Ace scoffed, "Her kicks can't do anything to me anymore. The old hag's seriously lost her strength."

Sabo looked over at the other boy, who was standing a few metres away, his arms crossed in his customary forbidding pose, the very picture of indifference. Although, as Sabo noticed with some satisfaction, his stance was slightly ruined by the fact that he was leaning to his right at quite an awkward angle.

'_Lost her strength my ass …'_

"So where do you think that Luffy went then? If he's neither at the hide-out nor at Dadan's? Or … do you think he lied?" Sabo asked hesitatingly.

"No." The response was immediate and left no room for doubt. "Luffy wouldn't lie about something like that. And even if he had we would have known about it straight away."

"That's … true …" Sabo thought, reflecting on the one instance he had seen Luffy lie before, back when Porchemy had been looking for their treasure. Even one of those blind fish thousands of miles underneath the surface of the sea would have been able to tell that Luffy had not been telling the truth at that moment. He might as well have turned his body into a human lie detector, flashing the words 'LIE! LIE!' in bold, capital letters above his head.

Sabo gave a frustrated groan and grabbed onto his hat. "Damn it, where could he be then? We've checked everywhere that could count as home …" After about a minute spent racking his brain, he turned to Ace with an absolutely frustrated glare. "Come on, Ace, I'm out of ideas here! You've known him for longer than I have, you've got to think of something!"

"Well, I don't know either, alright?!" Ace bit back.

"Oh geez, if you'd just talked to each other and apologised in the first place, none of this would have happened!"

Ace visibly stiffened, before he walked up to Sabo angrily. "Are you saying this is my fault then?! Because I'm not the one who sent you crashing into a tree with their useless ability!"

"What?! No! Of course I'm not saying that!" Sabo argued back almost as hotly as Ace. "I'm just saying that if both of you blockheads just finally learnt to talk to each other without being at each other's throats all the time we wouldn't have this problem now! If anything, this is as much Luffy's fault as it is yours!"

"So you ARE saying it is my fault after al!"

"Did you even LISTEN to a word I said just now?!"

The two boys growled at each other, openly raising their fists in each other's faces. It seemed that one more word would be enough to spark the tussle that both of them were secretly itching for … but surprisingly, after a few seconds of staring at each other in angry silence, both Ace and Sabo subsided at nearly the same moment.

"This is getting us nowhere," Sabo mumbled tiredly. "We should be working together to find Luffy, not fighting with each other."

"I know …," Ace said, his arms once again crossed in front of his chest and his face turned away in frustration. "The tree house … Dadan's … what other place might count as ho-"

Ace's head whipped around and he met Sabo's eyes which had got the same expression of sudden realisation in them. He groaned at his own stupidity.

"Of course … Fuusha!"

* * *

Leaves and twigs hit against his face repeatedly as Luffy rushed through the forest at a dead run, despite the pain of the little cuts he was getting all over his body.

Surely he had to be there soon … He had been running for what felt like hours already and his feet were beginning to hurt terribly. Having been busy arguing with his grandpa the last time he came this way, back when he was first taken to live with Dadan, Luffy only had a fuzzy memory of his journey to the mountain bandit's home – but it couldn't have been that far. Perhaps he had taken a wrong turning after all, back at the –

There was a break in the line of trees ahead and Luffy caught the sight of a windmill turning slowly in the distance for the split of a second. He let out a whoop of joy and started laughing, accelerating his pace, even though a mere moment ago he had felt on the brink of collapsing.

"Makino! Mayor! I'm baaaaack!"

He stepped out into the open and practically flew down the winding road – never noticing the figure which, after a moment of staring after him, turned back into the deeper shadows of the forest.

Right … it was time to inform the others.

* * *

**A/N**: Hello everyone :)! See, I did manage to update while I'm still in China - hooray! But just to warn you - this is likely to be the last update before I get back, which will be around the 29th of August. I'm really sorry about that! But there are three exams in Chinese that I've got coming up - I hope you can understand! Even though I know how annoying it is to wait for updates ... I'm really sorry! For what it's worth, I DO promise you that I'll update as soon as I can though!

And with that out of the way - thank you SO MUCH again for all the lovely reviews, story favourites, follows and clicks! I get all excited every time there's an email in my inbox xD! It's lovely to hear all your opinions! And on that note - I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter just as much as I did writing it - I particularly loved the scene with Dadan xD. It was just so much fun to imagine and to get the words on paper! Anyway, you guys honestly rock! Until next time! *heart* (Since this website doesn't allow for the symbol xD!)


End file.
